Paradiso - Longfellow Translation

Have order among themselves: and this is Form,

That makes the universe resemble God."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82) was America's most widely read poet of the 19th century. Yet little remembered today is the ambitious and laborious project of his middle years: his translation for New World readers of Dante Alighieri's epic trilogy of a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

In Paradiso, the third and final book, Dante enters the realms of the upper Heavens, where he and others rail against the avarice, luxury and corruption of ecclesiastics -- and where no less than Saints Peter, James and John challenge Dante on questions of Faith, Hope, and Charity.

Dante learns of the creation of the angels, the fall of Lucifer, and gains final insight into the mystery of human and divine nature, in this fitting sequel to Inferno and Purgatorio.

This title contains The Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise.

." . . All things whate'er they be
Have order among themselves: and this is Form,
That makes the universe resemble God."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82) was America's most widely read poet of the 19th century. Yet little remembered today is the ambitious and laborious project of his middle years: his translation for New World readers of Dante Alighieri's epic trilogy of a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

In "Paradiso," the third and final book, Dante enters the realms of the upper Heavens, where he and others rail against the avarice, luxury and corruption of ecclesiastics -- and where no less than Saints Peter, James and John challenge Dante on questions of Faith, Hope, and Charity.

Dante learns of the creation of the angels, the fall of Lucifer, and gains final insight into the mystery of human and divine nature, in this fitting sequel to "Inferno" and "Purgatorio."

Library Journal

Dante's Divine Comedy has inspired artists from Giotto down to the present. Perhaps among the most beautiful illustrations are those of the 15th-century Sienese painter Giovanni di Paolo, who illuminated a Paradiso manuscript for the library of the King of Naples, now in the British Library as Yates-Thompson MS 36. Pope-Hennessy, the noted British art historian, presents reproductions of di Paolo's 61 illuminations in a large format and in full color. He includes a lucid historical introduction and a commentary on the content of each of the miniatures. This book also includes Charles Singleton's prose translation of the Paradiso . This is a wonderful gift for the student of Dante and the lover of art.-- T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.

Dante Alighieri, the Italian poet whose masterpiece The Divine Comedy has exerted a profound influence on Western thought, was born in Florence in May 1265. He entered public life in 1295, later becoming one of the six governing magistrates of Florence. He repeatedly opposed the machinations of Pope Boniface VIII, who was attempting to place all of Tuscany under Papal control, and in 1301 was banished from Florence on trumped-up charges. Dante would never enter his native city again, spending his remaining years with a series of patrons in various courts in Italy. He completed The Divine Comedy shortly before his death in September 1321.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in 1807 in Portland, Maine, and he became a professor of modern languages at Harvard. His most famous narrative poems include The Song of Hiawatha, Paul Reveres Ride, "The Village Blacksmith," "The Wreck of the Hesperus." From his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, Longfellow got a brief outline of a story from which he composed one of his most favorite poems, 'Evangeline'. The original story had Evangeline wandering about New England in search of her bridegroom. One of the first poets to take the landscape and stories of North America as his subjects, Longfellow became immensely popular all over the world, and he was the first American commemorated in the Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey. He was given honorary degrees at the great universities of Oxford and Cambridge, invited to Windsor by Queen Victoria, and called by request upon the Prince of Wales. He was also chosen a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and of the Spanish Academy. He died on March 24, 1882.